Mancini a dead man walking at Manchester City

Premier League champions Manchester City strolled to a four goal FA Cup victory over Championship Leeds yesterday at the Etihad Stadium.

City boss Roberto Mancini believes the win may re-ignite his teams challenge for the Premier League title.

Behind

The win cannot mask the fact that City are currently trailing arch-rivals Manchester United by 12 points in the race for the Premier League title race.

The reigning champions now look unlikely to retain their crown at the end of the season.

Responsibility

Boss Mancini must take a huge slice of the blame in City’s relative poor season thus far. The Citizens have failed to hit the heights of last season. Mancini is the person responsible for motivating his expensive squad and at the moment he is not getting it right.

The players in his Manchester City squad should be performing better than they are and Mancini is the man responsible. His tactics and team selections this season really have to be questioned.

Poor

Manchester City have spent a lot of money in the last few years, but this summer’s transfer activity was truly awful. The likes of Scott Sinclair, Jack Rodwell and Javi Garcia were not the required quality needed to strengthen City’s squad from last season.

In fact, many would argue that Mancini’s squad is actually weaker this season. The loss of Dutch midfielder Nigel de Jong looks to have unsettled their backline and Javi Garcia isn’t quite yet in the same league.

Doubts

I don’t believe that Roberto Mancini has ever truly had the full faith of City’s mega-rich owners. I don’t think he has ever been regarded as a world-class boss either. The Italian boss has struggled in the Champions League at both Manchester City and Inter prior to his time at Eastland’s.

There has always been a sense that Roberto Mancini was just keeping the manager’s seat warm at the Etihad Stadium for a higher-profile boss. Even after winning the Premier League title Mancini never convinced as a top boss.

Patience

Manchester City’s oil-rich owners are unlikely to have much patience with the Italian boss. They have a plan of dominating English and European football. City haven’t lived up to those expectations under Roberto Mancini.

They are certainly not the best team in Europe; in fact they are not even the best team in Manchester. City’s owners have been relatively patient with the Italian. Mancini has spent a fortune on new players in his time in Manchester.

A lot of bosses have achieved far more with far less in the past. In modern football money is king and Mancini has had big resources at his disposal. However, despite his spending it seems that Mancini hasn’t achieved his owner’s objectives.

Ambitious

Manchester City’s owners are majorly ambitious. They want their football club to be a global brand, dare I say like neighbours Manchester United. I fear that the Citizens won’t achieve their ambitions with Roberto Mancini at the helm.

Summer

Roberto Mancini will no doubt endure a nervous few months until the summer. If Mancini is still in the City hot seat at the end of the season then what he does in the transfer market this summer will be key to how his team perform next season.

Replacements

Unfortunately for the former-Inter boss I don’t think he will get the chance to put his wrongs right. There has been a long list of managers linked with the City hot seat. David Moyes, Manuel Pellegrini and Jose Mourinho are just a few of the names being mentioned in connection with the position.

Mourinho replaced Mancini at Inter and ended up winning the Champions League. The Portuguese is a winner, but he also brings with him a whole heap of controversy. Mourinho would bring a winning mentality to the Etihad Stadium though.

David Moyes has done a fantastic job at Everton on a very tight budget by Premier League standards. His future at Everton is in doubt with his contract expiring in the summer. Moyes has little experience in European football though.

A man with plenty of European experience is Malaga boss Manuel Pellegrini. The Chilean boss was an enormous success with Villarreal, before being fired by Spanish giants Real Madrid.

Pellegrini has moved Malaga forward in recent years and help steer the Andalusian’s through a difficult financial spell this season. His team are well placed to finish in the Champions League spots, but they are unlikely to be allowed to participate in the competition because of their financial problems.

Pellegrini is also interesting Chelsea and the Chilean is current one of the favourites to become Chelsea boss in the summer.

Inevitable

Roberto Mancini leaving Manchester City is now almost inevitable. The Italian has done a decent job with City, but many will ask could any manager have had the same success the Italian has with the amount of money spent?

We will never know the answer to that question. Roberto Mancini may have done a decent job, but decent isn’t good enough if Manchester City are ever going to be any sort of dominant force European football.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Nugent

David is a freelance football writer with nearly a decade of experience writing about the beautiful game. The 33-year-old has written for over a dozen websites and also an international soccer magazine offline.
Arguably his best work has come as an editorial writer for Soccernews, sharing his good, bad and ugly opinions on the world’s favourite sport. During David’s writing career he has written editorials, betting previews, match previews, banter, news and opinion pieces.

Clearly you are a long way from news and strength of feeling at City. Mancini has the full backing and faith of the owners and fans. The so called poor transfers this last closed season were the responsibility of Brian Marwood, not Mancini. The season has been good except for a very tough Champoins League draw. Roberto is still one of the leagues most sucessful managers and the owners know this, why change.

He was awarded the contract once he actually won the league. At the moment, at least, the owners might be thinking differently. And Fergie wouldn’t allow such low quality players in; he’d make sure they didn’t get first team action unless it was absolutely necessary. However, Fergie has had inspirational signings before. Balotelli might have ended up with Mancini the way Cantona was with Fergie, considering the sulfur smell followed/follows both. And why not have one of those low quality guys come up and prove to be the right buy, if not immediately, or even soon? United’s more experienced in… Read more »

He raised the profile of Manchester City by spending vast amounts of money that is what he has done. However, many managers could have achieved what he has achieved with the resources he has had at his disposal.

I’m ashamed at the insult Ron Lowe or who,gave the writer.Dear writer,don’t bother worrying about this kind of team&its supporters.They’re not worth it.I’m more disappointed that my dear Brad even supports that other club.

City are the premier leagues Beverly hill Billy’s ,all new money and no class,the problem in acquiring playing staff like this is they dont feel for their club,it’s all about the money.Now the realisation that they have a bunch of overpaid whilst underachieving divas on the books is sinking in,hence Mancini wanting even more signings.This implies that he is placing the blame for his teams drop in form this season on the squad while not taking any responsibility himself,this just shows lack of character.Wait until the egos start to clash and city implodes,what a mess,Mancini to be shown the door

.. let’s do the math; Mancini has spent more than 100 million dollars to bring in more players and his team won the EPL ONLY BY GOAL DIFFERENCE, FA CUP, COMMU SHIELD. And failed to go thru from the group stages for two straight years in the Champions League.

.. and let’s compare him to Arsene Wenger in Arsenal, his team is still under pressure from the finances spent for their stadium but Arsene has made the most of his team.

advertisement

Get all the latest football news, betting tips, and promotions for all the major leagues around the world. Read in depth articles on all major Premier League events and other from countries with comments and opinions from our experienced bloggers. Also, find fixtures, results, and live score service. Read More